Critical Theories in Dark Tourism Issues, Complexities and Future Directions

Nitasha Sharma is a lecturer and Outreach Coordinator at the Department of Geography, University of Alabama, USA. She is a tourism geographer whose research broadly examines the multiple and contested representations of place and spatial behavior through projects situated in critical tourism studies. She specializes in the perception of authenticity, dark tourism, spectral geographies/haunted heritage, magic, and supernatural elements in tourism, rituals, pilgrimage and sacred spaces.

Annaclaudia Martini is an Assistant Professor in Human Geography at the University of Bologna, Italy. Her academic interests include geographies of affect, critical geographies, post-disaster tourism and heritage studies, and qualitative and creative methodologies. She works with disaster-hit communities in the Tohoku region of Japan, looking at the intersections of post-disaster tourism, affects, and community resilience.

Dallen J. Timothy is Professor of Community Resources and Development, and Senior Sustainability Scientist at Arizona State University, USA. He also holds visiting professorships in Mexico, China, Spain, and South Africa. His current tourism research in Africa, Asia, North America, Europe and the Pacific islands includes perspectives on geopolitics and globalization, international borders, pilgrimage, heritage management, retail consumption, human mobility, and sense of place.